Friday, April 13, 2018

Huge Solar 'Tornadoes' Do Not Rotate After All

According
to a new study presented at the European Week of Astronomy and Space
Science in Liverpool, UK, solar tornadoes may be inaccurately labelled
as 2D imaging in the past has been misleading. Solar tornadoes
are gigantic structures several times the size of Earth observed on the
Sun for more than a hundred years. These structures bear a striking
resemblance to tornadoes on Earth, however they are formed from
magnetized gas fixed to the solar surface, instead of intense, mobile
winds. Using the Doppler effect to add a third dimension to
their data, the team of European astronomers have been able to measure
the speed of the moving plasma, along with its direction, temperature
and density.

“We found that despite how prominences and tornadoes appear in images,
the magnetic field is not vertical, and the plasma mostly moves
horizontally along magnetic field lines,” said team leader Dr. Nicolas
Labrosse, from the University of Glasgow. “The overall effect is similar to the trail of an aeroplane in our
skies: the aeroplane travels horizontally at a fixed height, but we see
that the trail starts above our heads and ends up on the horizon. This
doesn’t mean that it has crashed,” added team member Dr. Arturo López
Ariste, from the University of Toulouse.

Article Compiled By: Kyle Tam

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